GREEN ENTRY

Not another National Velvet, but the first sure-fire runner up since that appeared. There's enthusiasm and excitement and warmth in the telling. There are nice people, -- Michael and Joan Stuart and Joan's son, Alan, aged eleven, and on edge with antagonism towards his stepfather. The Stuarts take in the horse show circuit in California, starting with Santa Rosita. The story is episodic, with little central plot, but its grand going. There are the various classes, horses, highstrung, made more nervous by strange rings, strange travel; there's Alan's eagerness to get into the ring; there's his acquisition of a dog; there's Joan's summons home; there's Michael and Alan pulling together to win a pair class. The show scenes are absorbing -- the three central characters first rate company. It's not as amusing as National Velvet. It may be unimportant. But it is grand entertainment --and we need plenty of just that.